Canberra and Beijing - Launched southward, Chinese polar-orbiting
reconnaissance satellites cross Antarctica and then head up the Atlantic and
past South America. Only then, perhaps 40 min. after they depart their Taiyuan
launch base, can U.S. radars on the islands Antigua and Ascension get a look at
them.

In a world of ever-faster military information distribution and
decision-making, 40 min. is a long time. That is surely one strong reason why
the Antigua radar is moving to Western Australia, from where it can begin
tracking Chinese polar satellites much sooner. It so happens that the western
edge of the Australian continent, the radar's intended home from 2014, is at 114
deg. E. Long., nearly dead south of Taiyuan, which is at 112 deg. E.

A second U.S. sensor could be heading to Western Australia: an advanced
satellite-watching telescope that the U.S. Air Force says is an order of
magnitude more effective than older models, such as one on Diego Garcia, far out
in the Indian Ocean. Analysts expect that its key tasks will include monitoring
geostationary satellites over the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

The transfer of the radar, and possibly the telescope, was announced in
November (AW&ST Nov. 19, 2012, p. 18). They will be parts of the U.S. Space
Surveillance Network. Significantly, the network's role far transcends just
watching Chinese spacecraft, analysts point out. And for that reason, the
southerly latitude of Western Australia has importance alongside its longitude.
Other U.S. ground-based space sensors are in the northern hemisphere.

While Australia is emphasizing the undoubtedly important civilian side of its
move—that the radar and telescope will help address the increasingly serious
problem of monitoring space debris—the decision to integrate itself into the
U.S. space situational awareness effort underlines its strategic stance. As
decision-makers in Canberra must have considered before announcing the move last
November, the radar and telescope on Australian soil would be active and perhaps
crucial in any confrontation between the U.S. and China.

Indeed, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will operate the C-band radar
and fully share its output with the U.S. This will be Australia's first
capability in space situational awareness. More such capabilities are envisaged,
in contrast to the current position where Australia relies entirely on the U.S.
for information on what is going on in space.

“The Department of Defense currently has no independent capability in space
situational awareness,” says a spokeswoman. “Under the arrangements for the
C-band radar, [it] will have the ability to task the C-band radar as part of its
normal operations.”

She adds: “Australia is in the early stages of investigating further
cooperative opportunities with the U.S. as well as possible indigenous space
situational awareness capabilities.” The department will not comment directly on
whether the radar, designated FPS-134, will track Chinese launches.

Despite Australia's eagerness to develop a space situational awareness
capability, Richard Tanter of the University of Melbourne believes that in this
case, as in others, Canberra is taking its default position of automatically
responding to a U.S. request for assistance. “We are not asking many questions
about this,” he says, while noting that Australia will at least have greater
understanding of space issues as the RAAF develops its skills.

The Australian government, long resistant to taking much interest in space,
appears to have finally decided that the issue is important, says Brett
Biddington of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. For political
and security reasons, the government is emphasizing civil sides of the activity,
such as monitoring debris. Biddington's view is that this key issue is a
conveniently valid cover for developing more military capabilities, which jibes
with the department's statement that it is looking at further development in
space situational awareness.

For watching Chinese launches from Taiyuan or points farther west, it is a
happy coincidence that there is already a joint Australian-U.S. communications
facility at the new home of the FPS-134 radar, North West Cape.

The telescope could be based at the same location or at Geraldton, says the
Defense Department, presumably referring to the Kojarena satellite
communications station inland from that remote Western Australia town. A final
decision to move that sensor to Australia has not yet been made. “Australia and
the U.S. are currently in the early stages of investigating all the issues
associated with moving the space surveillance telescope to Australia,” says the
spokeswoman.